Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: But we're going to look briefly this morning, evangelism and buckets.
And of course you'll be thinking, I've heard about evangelism.
What is he talking about buckets for? Hold that thought. But we'll start with evangelism and then we'll look at buckets later on. What is evangelism?
Well, I googled evangelism and AI and Google together came up with their answer.
Sometimes, as I shared the other week, it gives you a real good thought as a Christian. Sometimes you think, Nah, sorry, Mr. AI, not sure about that. I'll let you read into what's good and what's bad. So this is the AI answer on Google of what evangelism is. Evangelism is the act of spreading the good news, in brackets, the gospel of Jesus Christ, with the goal of persuading others to embrace Christian beliefs.
Okay, well, yep, Google, I will give you that. Evangelism is spreading the good news of Jesus, the gospel. We're all in with that. Yeah, but not to embrace Christian beliefs. No, no, no. To find Jesus.
Evangelism is one aim is to send people towards Jesus. He uses you. He uses me. And evangelism is simply telling people about Jesus. Who is what? The Savior of the world. That's not to embrace a Christian belief, is it? That's to tell people about the Savior of the world. Come on, as Christians, we know there is no other God.
What did Jesus say in John 14:6, famous passage? He says, I am the way,
[00:01:48] Speaker B: the
[00:01:48] Speaker A: way, the truth and the life.
Yeah.
There is no other God. He is the way, the truth and the life. Not up for debate, not confusing. There is no other God. And he says, nobody comes to the Father except through me. We all understand as Christians that when Jesus died on the cross, he took on your sins and mine. Muhammad didn't raise from the dead. Not trying to get political here.
Hindu gods, and they didn't raise from the dead. Jesus came fully God and fully man. Went into the grave with your sin and your face on his mind. The whole world, the whole of mankind was saved through Jesus. And when he resurrected three days later, he made a pathway to his Father in heaven. There is no other God but Jesus. Amen.
So that's evangelism. We want to tell people that about Jesus. That's why as many born again believers, we say, what? I am not religious. Just talked about there about Islam, Hindu, all these other things, Right, Sure. At the moment there's a lot of things we turn our telly on, don't we, that attract Our attention with other religions.
Quite scary, I think, at the moment in lots of ways. You're not religious. It's not a religion. Following Jesus. You are following the Savior of the world.
I love that. You know, when you're out and about talking, people say, oh, Phil's religious. I say, no, I'm not. I believe in Jesus. I believe in the Savior of the world. I don't make me religious. I believe in the truth. I believe Jesus came to this earth and died for me and people. It's great. Honestly. I'm just giving you a gentle way to talk about evangelism. People are like, oh, so you're not religious? No, no, no, I'm not religious. No. I just believe in the only one true God. That's Jesus. Oh, we don't have to cower, do we, church? So evangelism, we're just going to prod you a little bit this morning.
It means following the Savior of the world. There is no other God. There is no other way to heaven.
There is no other way. Through a heart, a life fully surrendered to Jesus.
I'll say that. I'll say that again. There is no other God. There is no other way to heaven than through a heart and a life fully surrendered to Jesus. Amen. Come on. Come on. So evangelism is one of the five graces in the. A pest that we've been looking at.
Anyone know what the apest is again?
What's A?
Apostles? What's P?
What's T?
What's S?
You got it. And we've got. The evangelists doesn't get talked about that much. A lot of shepherds gets mentioned. Pastoral, shepherd, caring for people.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: People.
[00:04:25] Speaker A: Apostles seem to get a lot of credit because they kind of make things happen and pioneer things.
Evangelists tell people about Jesus. We can all tell people about Jesus. But evangelists particularly thrive in this role, that grace over their life. If they do. The APE s test is this ability to tell people about Jesus. But I want us to know this morning we can all tell people about Jesus.
Are you one of those Christians that's been a Christian a long time? You think it's not my job anymore to tell people about Jesus? It's the evangelist's job.
Not sure I want to prod you this morning.
I'd say we're living in days, possibly living in some of the scariest days since Jesus came to this earth. You read End Times in the Bible. A lot of it's starting to happen in it. Wars, famines, earthquakes, kids disobeying the Parents, substances, sexual immorality. It's all around us, isn't it?
Even in my lifetime of 52 years.
You feel the world is changing, don't we? We're living in days where I believe it's never been more important to tell people about Jesus Church. It's never been more important.
Well, before we look into this grace of evangelism, I'd like to interview somebody just for a couple of minutes, who to me, is definitely operating in the grace of evangelism. So, Billy, will you come up, give him a round of applause.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Thank you very much.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: So, Billy, I'm going to ask you three questions which I have sort of given you a little bit of notice about. So hopefully you're ready to answer them. So, three questions. Because I've seen you this last six months to a year, and I believe you really operate in the gift of advice, evangelism. So I want to. I want to get some of your knowledge and we all want to get some of your knowledge what it is to be an evangelist. So question one.
I noticed that you often wear a certain style of T shirt. William. Is it William, Billy? Billy? Is it William?
[00:06:29] Speaker B: Originally it's William, but it's Billy.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: That's. It's Billy. All right. Don't anybody call him William.
He can pack a punch. So, Billy, I notice you wear a certain style of T shirt that always has a gospel message on. Do you want to tell us why you do that and how it's received?
[00:06:50] Speaker B: First of all, I believe that every single Christian, everybody, every Christian, has a responsibility to tell other people about Jesus.
The Bible warns. That tells us that we must warn people about what they're doing and warn them to make sure that they go to heaven and don't go to hell. People don't preach about hell because it empties churches.
But hell, like heaven, is a real reality. The reason I wear these shirts is because.
And I used to have this, the scriptures on my car. But I'm having the car repaired, so as when it's repaired, the scriptures will be back on it. But the reason is this shirt in particular.
It's really good to wear shirts that say Jesus is love and express the love that Jesus is. But I think now, and this is only my personal feeling, I think today more than ever, it is crucially important that we realize, and we've got to wake up, we've got to realise that if our friends, our family, our neighbors and people we work with, everybody, if we do nothing, if we do not evangelize to them, if we do not tell them about Jesus, they are going to hell. Sorry, I can't dress it up. They're going to hell.
So while wearing this shirt. This shirt has.
You won't believe the effect of this shirt. I'll give you an example.
About six weeks ago, I advertised a tour for sale on one of the sites.
And three people came down from Taunton, three lads in a transit. And I had this shirt on.
And they got out and the big lady said, oh. He said, I like your shirt. I'm a Christian.
I said, good. I said, are you born again?
I'm a Christian. I said, are you born again?
What do you mean?
And my car's right next to it, and on the back door it says, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. Look at that.
No. He said, no, I'm not.
And it turns out all three of these went to church, but none of them were born again. He said, no, I'm not.
I said, what about you?
Well, I go to church, but I'm not born again. You? No, I'm not born again either.
So I took the time and explained what born again is.
And it's important to get it right.
When you tell someone about being born again, you've got to get it right.
When I was finished speaking, this main man, he said, well, he said, I need to be born again. He said, how can I do it? And I explained to him what. I said, look, if you want to be born again, if you want to come to Christ right now, right here, I can lead you to Christ.
And he says, I want to do it now. I want to do it now. And the other two said, so do I. So do I. In my workshop, I brought three men to Jesus. And why?
Because of the shirt.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: Amazing. Amazing, amazing. Billy, if you were to take an APEX test, I'm sure evangelism would come out top for you.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: It did. It did.
[00:10:11] Speaker A: Well, there's a shock.
I don't think they've got about T shirts in the apes test. Have they though? No, we need to put that in for you. So, as an evangelist, what advice would you give other Christians maybe operating in their grace of evangelism and maybe. Or if they're not got the top grace of evangelism? What examples of rejection, maybe and successes have you seen? You've given us one example of success, obviously, but what examples have you given? Both rejections and successes, but that has helped you keep going. As an evangelist, what advice would you give?
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Well, the first thing is I'll Always keep going as an evangelist, because I love the Lord more than anybody.
But the thing is, when you talk to people, you do get rejected. People make fun of you. I don't believe all that stuff.
And I spoke to one bloke for 45 minutes. He was a Catholic, and. And he was going to heaven. And after 45 minutes to tell him everything he needed to know, he turned around. He said, well, said I believe there's more than one way to heaven. I said, well, the Lord would call you a fool. I said, because that's what I'm calling you, a fool. And he just wouldn't be turned.
And so there are others. One man I spoke to about Jesus, he got real mad real quick.
And, you know, the door shut there, no two words about it.
But on the other side, on the other side of things, I listen to.
I don't know if you know a bloke called Ray Comfort.
He's on the web. And what he does is. And it's unique.
He teaches that if you want to save somebody, if you go to somebody you don't know, maybe and say, you need Jesus, turn. I said, what for?
If you say, well, you're not going to heaven because you're a sinner, well, everybody else is.
We're not about everybody else talking about you.
And then you say to them,
[00:12:07] Speaker A: they
[00:12:07] Speaker B: think, why are you going to heaven? Well, I've lived a good life. I've given money away. I've done my best knowing God's pleased me. And then. So you need to get through that. Because while they think they're good, they don't need replacement.
So what Ray Ray does, which is interesting, is Satan. Right? Let's ask you a few questions.
Have you ever stolen anything, even something tiny? Well, yes.
Have you ever used God's name in vain?
Well, yes.
Then you turn around and say, well, okay, so by your own admission, you're a blaspheming liar and a thief.
So you're lying, blaspheming a thief.
Well, yes.
So what would God say? You going to heaven or hell?
Well, heaven, I hope.
And then that's the time. And this is for people who want to reach out. That's the time. So, okay, well, this is what the Bible says, this is what the Lord says, and this is what you have to do. And this is the only thing you can do to get to heaven.
And, you know, if you're one thing that really, really convinces other people. I've had so many comments.
Many people say to me, you're so sure of what you say.
You know, I stand. You're so sure, you're so confident.
I say, because I'm saved and I want you to be. But, you know, the other thing, just very quickly, very, very quickly, one thing I want to say is we are living in terrible times right now.
But the one thing that I would urge everybody, all of you, is this.
Whether we die, whether we go to heaven or hell, we think, well, that's in the Future. I'm only 16, I'm only 30. I'm only. Whatever it is, I've got plenty of time for that. And I've heard this argument so many times.
But the thing is, what you need to say to people is, okay, the Lord never said that we're going to see tomorrow.
He never said we're going to see tomorrow. You might not see this afternoon. And I say to him, if you don't make a decision, then it might be too late. But the other thing is advice to evangelists is this.
You've got to remember when you bring something to the Lord, you've got to be careful because you don't want to bring someone to the Lord who's doing it because you. You want them to.
It's got to be. And it's only got to be because they wanted it for themselves, not for somebody else.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Billy, I think that's amazing. And the bit about urgency.
Yeah, we can all float along, can't we, and think tomorrow's going to be fine. And, yeah, I really like that. So final question then. Final question.
You do obviously, definitely have a gift and a hunger for what you do. And, and it's lovely to see seeing those three guys get saved in your workshop, all because of your T shirt. But you followed it up and we applaud you for that, don't we, Church? He's really operating in his gift. It's brilliant. Yeah, you do.
But final question then. And I want you to think about this.
What advice would you to give? Maybe those that don't operate in the grift of evangelism as their grace, maybe it's bottom of their list. Or maybe they've never ever told anybody about. About Jesus. And the actual thought of all that you've said, telling people about Jesus, I'm absolutely hopeless at diy, right? And I need people to help me. Jacob, this morning, hero, over here. So I said, jacob, I've come in the minibus this morning, I cannot find to put the, you know, the water squirter. The water squirter run out. So I Bought some screen wash.
Couldn't get it in the engine because I just. Just not good. Esther made a bed this week because she knows I couldn't do it. She put it together and Jacob just came out, says Phil. You put the key in there, turn it up, pops the bonnet. He's operating in his grace of being great at diy. The point here is we all have different things, different gifts. You clearly operate in this gift really well.
[00:16:03] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: What advice would you give to the people out there that maybe never told anyone about Jesus and the absolute thought of telling them about Jesus terrifies them, even though they love Jesus. What would you say to them?
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Okay, well, that.
That's not too hard a question. The thing is, in my opinion, if you're brave enough to talk to people about Jesus, then talk to them.
We need to remember that everybody we come across, nearly, nearly everybody we come across, is on the road to hell. I don't like to talk about hell, but it is real and on the way there. And it could be there today, tomorrow, any other time.
But I understand that everybody hasn't got the brass neck that I have.
And a lot of people won't say anything to anybody because that's just not what they do. If that's you, and if you want to evangelize, then another way to do it, you don't have to say a word to anybody.
Get yourself a shirt.
But don't get a shirt that says Jesus is love or Jesus loves you.
Get a shirt like this that tells it in no uncertain terms.
This is the only way. There is no other way. Because it's real nice to look at shirts that say, Jesus loves you and Jesus is love. And that's great, but we need to realise the sense of urgency. And it is urgency, believe me, it's urgency. Our family members, there are members in all of our families, probably nearly everybody here, who are not saved.
They're going to hell. What do we do about it? Probably not much.
We need to realize if we do not save our own family members along with others, they will go to hell. And once you're there, it's too late. But you know, if you're not. If you want to reach a lawn and you just. You just can't do it because it's not you. And I understand that. That's not a problem. Get yourself a shirt. Get something put on your car, and I tell you why very, very, very quickly, on the car, on the front doors, I've had it. But I'm getting bodywork done on my car. On the front doors, I've got jesus is the way, the truth and our life. And on the back doors is the next important one or one of the most important ones. Jesus said John 3. 3. Jesus said, unless a man be born again, will never see the kingdom of God.
And that's the truth.
But I've been parked up many, many, many times. And I've been sat in the car waiting for the missus to come out, wherever it is.
And my attention is drawn to the number of children.
Mid range children, they walk past it and they read it out.
They actually read it out. And other people, they stand there, they look at it. It's free advertising.
But on the other, this is a warning. This is a warning. In Ezekiel, it says. I think it's Ezekiel 15:16, but it says if we saying nothing to people going to hell, then we share the blame for them going to hell. That's what it says in Ezekiel.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Thank you, Billy.
Right. I appreciate not everybody's going to buy a T shirt. I do. But what about church? If we all bought a bumper sticker? As I said in America, you said there the way the truth and the life is on the side of your car, Billy. Well, why don't we get Charles? Come on, you can design this. This week's challenge. This wasn't in the script, by the way, but rediscover church. Newton Abbott. We meet at Stover school. Ask me about it, by the way. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Something like that.
We're not going to put a sun on it with little lines of sun coming out. That's what the yanks do. We're not doing that. Think of something cooler than that. Would we all put one on our car if we did that? Are you embarrassed?
Right. We'll work on that.
Billy's a big lad, so Billy will pick you up and shake you around if you don't put your sticker on your car. But challenging church. Wasn't it challenging to hear an evangelist talk like that?
Got to hear what Billy said, though. There is an urgency we need to tell people about Jesus. Yes, evangelism's thriving, their gifting. But I think we all can tell people about Jesus.
Do we all have to wear a T shirt? No. Tell you what, when we went to Bethel, we went over to California, as you know, last month, and they all walk around with these revival T shirts on and. Interesting. If you google reading as a town, you hear two sides of that story. A lot of people. So I'm guessing mainly non Christians. But a lot of people say it's crazy in this town. You. You're likely to bump into one of them. You're likely to bump into a Christian who'll tell you all about Jesus and walk around with a T shirt on. Then you get the opposite. A lot of people also said on this big long reviews thing on TripAdvisor and Google, he said, it is such a nice town. There's a lot of Christians there. You'll feel warm, welcomed and cared for. Don't know about God, but it's a special place to be. Interesting that, innit? And we know we're going to come against attrition. Billy himself shared that. He's had times where people shout back at him.
But I want us to stand on a ledge church. That's what I prod you with this morning. We've got to tell people about Jesus. We've got to tell people about Jesus. We've got to tell Newton Abbott about Jesus. Because you could definitely feel, I would say, and we all felt this as a family, didn't we, Heidi? When we went, it was a tangible presence of Jesus in that town. You just go into some shops or the pizza place or different stuff. We'd meet, somebody was there and it was just. It was wonderful. Do you know what I mean? It was a town that takes 10% of the town. I think 7% of the town went to Bethel. It was amazing. So imagine the presence like that here in our town. Matt, you shared this morning beautifully. A lady came in and got healed because God was there, the Holy Spirit was there. I've asked Andrew many times to just come in and have a bacon sandwich and pray. And you do it so faithfully. I believe we've seen people come to know Jesus because you have the time to sit there and pray and you've done it so well. And thank
[00:21:58] Speaker B: you.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Come on.
There you go.
I'm chief prayer.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:22:09] Speaker A: Come on.
Isn't that amazing? Come on. It's chief prayer.
So if we can have a bumper sticker on our car, it just a. Well, it'll affect me the way I drive along. Probably a little bit more righteously for a start off, but it should affect the way we are if we're going to wear a T shirt, if we're going to put a bumper sticker on. I want us to tell people about Jesus in this town. The days are getting shorter and shorter. We've got to tell people about Jesus. Church. I want you to go and think that this morning people drive around going, who Are those guys? Have you seen those stickers on those cars? Let's get them talking about us. Let's. When they put in TripAdvise, when Newton Abbott comes up, everyone's got a bumba sticker telling you about Jesus. Come on.
Wouldn't it be great?
Remember I said at the start we're going to look at buckets? So evangelism and buckets. We're going to look at buckets now. And you're still thinking, what has buckets got to do with this? Phil, think of a bucket.
Well. Do you remember the woman at the well?
Remember the story in the Bible of the woman at the well? That famous passage in John 4 where a Samaritan woman is drawing water at a place called Jacob's well? It's Jacob's well in a town called Sy in Samaria. And Jesus walks along to the same well where this Samaritan woman is drawing water.
And as she's drawing water, this woman Jesus there starts to have a conversation with her.
And then he asks what water she needed. Verse 10, he says, this Jesus says to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. She's confused, isn't she? Thinking, what is he talking about? Bit like the buckets thing still. Well, verse 13. Jesus says again, I've got a Bible now. You know, with the red where Jesus talks. Say it's in John, folks. It's splattered everywhere. Red, red, red, red. You've got to get a Bible where Jesus talks in red. It's brilliant.
Verse 13. Jesus says, Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. So the water that's coming out of the well where she's gone with a bucket to get the water to quench her thirst.
He says, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Amazing.
So Jesus then tells her all about her life. And they get in this conversation and starts talking about her husband. That she's actually not with her husband. Jesus says, correct. He goes on to tell her about the five previous. Five previous. Previous husbands. Esther. She'll probably think I'm too much. You ladies having a husband's big news, isn't it? But to have had five.
Wow.
Hope they're all better at DIY than me. But she's had five previous husbands. Then she starts crying. Don't. She starts getting really emotional. As if.
How does he know that? I've just met this guy at the well. He knows all about my life. He knows that my current guy I'm with is not my husband. The five previous husbands have had. She gets all upset. She gets emotional and she realizes, she says she's confronted the Messiah, the coming Christ.
What does she do then? She gives her life to Jesus. Her life is dramatically turned around, just as it will be for us when we tell people about Jesus. Nate and Isaac, always so lovely to see you up front. Lovely to see there on the drums and the guitar together. We saw when Jesus bumped into your life and you had the courage to stand on a beach and tell everyone about Jesus. Beautiful as young men. Your whole life's done that. A path towards him. That's what happens when we tell people about Jesus, doesn't it? It's amazing. Her life completely turns around. What does she do, Billy? She beat you. She didn't have a T shirt, lad, but she ran into town in Samaria and told everyone what Jesus had done. Said he knew all about me. He knew everything.
And I've given my life to serve and follow him. I'm following after Jesus every day of my life from now on. What does the Bible tell us, then? It doesn't say she got punched in the face or she got into trouble. The Bible testifies in John 4. 39 that many believed in Jesus because of this woman's testimony. Yeah, many believed in Jesus because of this woman's testimony. She met Jesus. Her life was transformed. She wanted to tell everybody about Jesus.
Come on. Who needs to put the bucket down again today, Church? Who needs to put the bucket back down in the well?
Put your bucket down for the living water that Jesus gives you.
So what's your story, Church? What's your individual stories, all of you? Because it needs telling. You know, God will give you opportunities every day of your life to talk to people about Jesus. I believe that you just got to be open to it. And I know I might not be in evangelist quite like Billy, but I know I've probably got a bigger gob than most and I'm a cheeky Yorkshireman, but recently I've just been saying, lord, just give me opportunities.
That's a great prayer to pray, because he will. So I most mornings, and Jill will tell me off, but I'm slightly better than I was. But most mornings I get a bacon sandwich and a coffee at the BP Garage, you know, on Bovy Straits, as you come down to Drumbridge Roundabout, and I'm Getting to know all the staff there, it's brilliant. I'm getting to know him.
They know I'm a pastor and a guy in steel. It confuses them. It's brilliant.
We have a chat most times but there's this one lady there called Kelly and she's a bit of a rough diamond and sometimes I'll have a bit of banter with each of them and I wouldn't say to Kelly something like she was, she was being silly behind the counter doing stuff. I said, hey, Kelly, be a good girl today, won't you? Come on. And all the other staff start laughing and she went, oh, not me. Never, never be good. My mother despised me. She kicked me out the house. She hated me. Just from that one comment, a little bit of a life comes out. I said, your mum kicked you out? She said, yeah, my mum kicked me out when I was young. She hates me.
I went, well, I want to tell you about somebody that doesn't hate you, that absolutely loves you to bits. She went, go on then. Because there's nobody. Yeah, there is. He's called Jesus and he absolutely loves you to bits. In fact, where's Paul Brooks? He was with me. I did it the other day and we went in and I said, jesus loves you, Kelly.
And then I said it again a week later. Then I said it again two days ago. She's starting to get the picture. I said, kelly, Jesus loves you. I want you to know that. And I want her to come here, I want her to come and find Jesus. It started off by her saying, nobody loves me. My mother kicked me out of the house and she's got this self image of Im a waste of time, nobody will ever love me. Wrong. Jesus loves you. That was just one conversation. We can all do that, can't we? We can all do that. Come on. So I've started to tell her every day, how's your walk? Truly with God Church? Just before I close, I want to ask you how your walk is with God because I believe that defines how you're able to tell people about church and about Jesus.
People see us as Christians. I know I've shared this with you before, but they watch you in the office, right? They watch our dirty jokes told. Now you respond. Anyone ever had that? I used to work with eight salesmen. Somebody tell a joke and they all look at me sometimes. It's a joke you try not to laugh at. I'm like, they're all looking at me. And people watch our lives. Every little journey of our life. Your neighbors they'll see you go out on a Sunday morning. People watch our lives. And I believe we need to be walking with God to be able to evangelize.
And I read a really interesting article on this. So I googled the Samaritan Woman house, hoping to get some more help with my preach. And I came across this. I was like, wow, wow, that is just what the people need this morning. So I'm going to read it to you. Anyone heard of John Piper?
Yeah. So this is from John Piper talking about the article in Samaritan Woman. And I'd already got in my mind about dropping the bucket in the well, and I scrolled down what he'd written and it talked about buckets, but from a completely different viewpoint. So listen to this. This is from John Piper, really listening church.
He says, sin is the anti well, the well.
Sin is the anti fountain. And some of you are drinking from that well every day.
Maybe you're like that Samaritan woman and you've thrown yourself into a relationship after relationship. Or maybe your well is online in that dark place, looking at things on the Internet. Maybe you're fostering bitterness, maybe you're fostering anger.
Maybe is it that you're indulging in alcohol or overeating or binge watching Netflix?
The first time you put your bucket down, you've got enough for a little drink and then a little less, and then a little less, and then a little less of the living water.
Now you're scraping the dirty barrel at the bottom for getting a drink that ends up being just a thimbleful for that little drip of living water. But really, you're so thirsty, you keep trying.
Put your bucket down, whatever it is, put the bucket down and walk away.
Don't drink of that sinful life anymore. Come to the fountain of life and you'll never be thirsty again.
But all you have to do is ask.
Did you hear that in verse 10? Yes, ask. Verse 10 says, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you his living water.
Why would he give it to you? Because you asked.
All you have to do is ask.
Right here in these verses. It speaks of a well, a spring of life.
It speaks of Jesus, and he will never fail you.
You don't even need to put your bucket down anymore because the well is inside of you.
Yes, the well lives within you. John 4:14 says, the water that I will give you will become in him, in you. A spring of living water welling up to eternal life. Band, will you come back out, please? Oh, you are doing. That was good.
Church. Can we stand?
I believe we all have a story to tell. We have our life that we live that tells a story of who we are as a Christian. And I want us to dig deep into Jesus.
Dig deep into the well of living water and let it live within you. Yeah. So that whatever you're going through, Jesus is always more than enough.
And God will give you opportunities to tell people about Jesus, but I want you to earnestly pray for them. Get your lives right with God. As we shared there on that list, too many of us could mirror some of the things that go on that list that pull us away from Jesus. Let's draw near to him. Let's draw near to this living water. Just one final little story. I used to work for 10 years selling steel for a guy called Malcolm Clark in Manchester. Malcolm Clark Steels.
He was a bit of a trendy guy. He had a ponytail and a pinstripe suit.
He was a great guy. He was a strange guy to work for. He was quite an anomaly, but he was a big, powerful guy in the steel trade. And eventually I started my own business.
But I worked for this guy 10 years. I worked hard for him. But a year before I went to go on my own, he got really ill. 55 years old, he got a brain tumor. And it was this guy that looked up to. He was like a status figure in the steel industry. Everybody knew him.
He looked like Frankie Rossi out of Status Quo. And he was quite an outgoing chap. And he got this brain tumour and he went to hospital.
He was in hospital for a year. Slowly but surely, all the staff stopped going to see him. And I kept going. I just felt this real call that if he comes out of prison, if he comes out of hospital, I'm going to tell him about Jesus and that I'm praying for him.
And he had a couple of operations. He was never fully the same again and he had to sell the business. That's why I left and I started my own company. But I worked for him for one last year and he used to come back into the office and he wasn't quite this flamboyant guy he was before, but it was Malcolm. He was my boss.
And the first day. The first day he came back, I walked up to him because I knew I had to do. It was burning within me. And I prayed. I thought, lord, if he gets out of hospital, I want to tell him About Jesus. And I said, malcolm. He says, yeah, here at lunchtime. I said, I have something to tell you. He said, you're going to invite me to church, aren't you?
I said, how do you know that? He says, I knew he would.
I couldn't believe it. You're going to invite me to church, aren't you? I said, yeah, I am. He said, where are we going?
Promise you. He was this big trendy guy, had a lot of money, had a Rolls Royce. He was this big icon in the steel industry that I worked for. And I'd been praying. What I didn't know was, and this is how God works in people's lives, he'd been praying laden and he'd had three women. He was a charlatan. He was this and that. He was lovely. But he was a boy about town. He'd been praying, laid on a hospital bed, said, God, if you get me out of here, I want to come to church. I want to know you. I didn't know that. I just knew in this pull inside. The first day I went up to him, I said, malcolm, I want you to come to church. Where are we going?
We went to Altrinchen Baptist Church and he got saved. I baptized him. The pastor let me come out, and he went on the alpha course. He was telling others about Jesus. It was amazing. Four years later, because of all that had happened with his brain, he sadly passed. But that man found Christ. Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing? You can all do that church. You can all have moments if you get your life right with church, all those around right, we have to tell people about Jesus. Pray for the Kellys. In this world that you're going to bump into, not just me and Billy, who are you going to bump into to tell about Jesus? Amen.
Are you with me?
